Some Additional Thoughts and Observations About Apostolic Area Assignments

Hello again, everyone! The Church News has reported on how, in a single day (Sunday November 1), 6 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, accompanied by their respective wives, gave counsel to young adults living in each of the Church’s 6 North American areas. For reasons I will be detailing in this post, the nature of the respective reports has led me to some additional thoughts and observations about specific apostolic assignments (particularly in relation to the Church here in North America).

In detailing how those devotionals broke down, I will list each apostle and his wife one at a time, providing the geographical area to which each couple addressed their remarks in parenthesis: Elder Dieter F. and Sister Harriet R. Uchtdorf (North America Northeast); Elder David A. and Sister Susan K. Bednar (North America Southeast); Elder Quentin L. and Sister Mary G. Cook (North America West); Elder Gary E. and Sister Lisa J. Stevenson (Utah); Elder Dale G. and Sister Ruth L. Renlund (North America Central); and Elder Gerrit W. and Sister Susan L. Gong (North America Southwest).

As I have noted a few times previously, the Quorum of the Twelve is assisted by the Presidency of the Seventy in the global administration of the Church’s now-22 areas. For a while now, it’s been difficult to determine at times which members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were assigned oversight for each area, except in cases where that has been specified. So let’s take a look at some of the assignments listed to see if we can draw any conclusions.  The first natural conclusion to draw is that each apostle who spoke to young single adults in each area is assigned oversight for each of those respective areas.

And on the surface, that conclusion may be mostly sound and perfectly justifiable. The biography of Elder Brent H. Nielson shows him assigned to assist Elder Quentin L. Cook in the administration of the North America West Area. That’s explicitly stated, so it’s verified. But let’s now look at the biographies for Elders Carlos A. Godoy and Patrick Kearon. Although Elder Godoy’s biography notes only that he has responsibility for the Utah Area, Elder Kearon’s biography notes that Elder Ronald A. Rasband oversees the Utah Area. The note about Elder Rasband overseeing the Utah Area may be based on outdated information in an August 2018 video in which Elder Rasband introduced the new Utah Area Presidency.

I am suggesting that the information may be outdated based on another theory: When the video to which I I shared the link above was released, Elder Rasband did indeed have oversight for that area. But seven months earlier, in January, when the First Presidency reorganization was introduced, Elder D. Todd Christofferson had oversight of the Church Public Affairs Committee, and conducted the January 16, 2018 press conference as a result. At some point following the apostolic calls of Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares, there was a reshuffling of responsibilities and assignments at Church headquarters, and it appears that Elder Rasband at some point took over Elder Christofferson's role in chairing the Church Public Affairs Committee.

Depending on the other assignments that each member of the  Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have, it could be that the Brethren shifted oversight responsibility for the Utah Area from Elder Rasband to Elder Stevenson.With the information from the Church News articles being more current than the information in the broadcast may have been, and with a reshuffling of assignments possibly at play here, it seems  more correct to surmise that each apostle who spoke did so in the North American Area for which they have respective oversight. 

Let me add just a few more thoughts here: For the remaining four members of the Presidency of the Seventy, no area assignments are listed for either Elder Carl B. Cook or Elder Jose A. Teixeira. But specific area assignments are noted for both Elder Robert C. Gay (including the North America Northeast) and Elder Terence M. Vinson (North America Southeast). The specific apostles the two are assisting with those areas were not detailed. But if we assume that the information in the Church News articles is correct, we have correctly been able to identify which members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have oversight for each of the six North American areas of the Church. 

Although I wish the Church was more transparent about the specific assignments each apostle is filling in terms of areas and responsibilities at headquarters, the two articles seem to provide more official information than what we previously had to work with in that respect.  I will, of course, while tracking all other Church news developments and temple updates, continue as I can to keep my eyes open for any other insights I can glean on the specific assignments which are being filled by each of our current apostles, and will be sure to pass word of those updates along to you all as I am able to verify them. 

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do. 

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreaking Held for Salta Argentina Temple

Hello again, everyone! Less than half an hour ago, in updating my previous post that highlighted the intial cautious reassignment process for non-native missionaries in some areas of the world, I had noted that the groundbreaking for the Salta Argentina Temple was anticipated to occur, perhaps within minutes, of when I published those updates. A short time ago, the Church's official Newsroom confirmed that that temple groundbreaking had taken place.

As originally announced, Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, President of the South America South Area of the Church, presided at that groundbreaking. Just by way of review, the Church had originally announced in June that that temple would have a groundbreaking on August 15. Three days before that was to occur, the Church then had announced that the groundbreaking would be delayed until Friday October 9. And just over a month after the second delay was announced, the groundbreaking was then pushed back until sometime in November.

Then, of course, just a few short days ago, we got word of the arrangements that the groundbreaking for the Salta Argentina Temple would occur today at 6:30 PM local time. The fact that we now have confirmation that it actually occurred as arranged is tremendous. Although we don't have any solid information at present as to the proected size of the temple or the aniticipated duration of the construction process, based on my research for that temple, I am assigning it a general completion estimate of late 2023-early 2024.

And unless any temple groundbreakings are held between now and then, the next one for which we have confirmation of specific arrangements is the Coban Guatemala Temple, which will, as previously confirmed, occur on Saturday November 14. That being said, although no other temple groundbreakings have been confirmed to occur between now and then, I would anticipate at least one might be noted as having occurred, particularly for any of the temples in the United States. 

It's also possible that either or both of the two counselors in the South America South Area Presidency may be able to break ground for the Mendoza Argentina and Antofagasta Chile Temples within that time. Whatever might happen in that respect, rest assured I will be keeping my eyes open for developments in that respect and will bring any such word to you all here as I become aware of it.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING NEWS: Church to Begin Cautious Reassignment of Missionaries.Outside Their Home Natioms

Note: This post was originally published at 9:58 AM MST, and given massive updates that were completed at around 2:20 PM MST.

Hello again, everyone! A few moments ago, Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff issued an official statement on behalf of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, noting that leaders will begin what he described as a limited, deliberate, and cautiously-coordinated effort to start reassigning some missionaries to fields of labor outside their home nations. The Church News provided some additional information and context.

In the statement, Brother Woodruff also expressed gratitutde for the way in which current missionaries (and, by extension, those preparing to depart for the mission field) have responded to what has happened in so many cases, with required quarantines and other precautions being taken to get missionaries to a new field of labor, and also for the way in which so many young missionaries have embraced greater use of technology to meet their obligations to share the gospel throughout the world.

As previously acknowledged by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who chairs the Missionary Executive Council of the Church, one impact of COVID-19 on missionary service is that it has changed the way the Church looks at missionary efforts. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, and its' wide-spread impact throghout the world, it was easier for the Church to uphold the status-quo perception, ideas, and practices relating to how missionary work was conducted on a global scale. 

But with COVID-19 changing so much in relation to the Church's day-to-day operations, out-of-the-box solutions had to be sought for and implemented. As a result, with the changes that have been necessary during this COVID-19 pandemic are expected to be part of the "new normal" in missionary work in the days ahead.  And the process of making any necessary adjustments will continue to unfold following consultation between leaders at Church headquarters, area presidencies worldwide, and, through that process, conveyed to mission presidents and to current and prospective missionaries and their families. 

With most missionaries having opted to resume their service in their home nations as quickly as they could following their quarantines, the process of reshuffling missionaries or adjusting assignments may take time to sort out. Today's statement also noted that missionaries would be contacted by the offices of the missions to which they will be assigned, whereby those missionaries will receive information about their travel itineraries, including scheduling and arrangements that will play into their arrival in the field, and that missionaries who have received that information can then convey it to their families. 

At this point, the Church is urging missionaries and their families to be patient with the process, and is further discouraging missionaries and their family members from unnecessarily reaching out to the Church Travel Office, embassies, or consuls about their travel plans or documents. because the Church is carefully planning all of that on their end. By patiently allowing the Church to handle coordination in that respect, missionaries and their families will save themselves a lot of hassle, stress, and worry.

It is also worth noting that COVID-19 conditions are still in flux throughout much of the world. As a result, the Church is carefully weighing every aspect of returning to any semblance of normalcy in every step along the way to whatever the long-term :"new normal" may look like. The statement also notes that the Church's foremost concern in the process of making adjustments to assignments will be the safety of the missionaries worldwide, the satfety of their companions and mission leaders, and the safety of all those with whom any missionary or missionary companionship will interact.

So there will be a lot to consider here in that respect, especially since the Church has so much to evaluate with respect to COVID-19. President Nelson has repeatedly reemphasized that the health, safety, and well-being of Church members and friends of other faiths around the world will remain the Church's utmost concern. Given the fact that we just recently received word that it may be a while before any of the Church's temples in phase 2 transition into phase 3, it's apparent that the reassignment of Church missionaries, the reopening of temples, and the resumption of Church meetings is something that the Church is not inclined to rush a return to normalcy.

And that's consistent with the scriptural directive given by the Lord in Doctrine and Covenants 10:4. It is wonderful to see that the Church is determined to not run faster or labor harder than the prevalent worldly conditions as a result of COVID-19 will allow.  It's far easier to take a slow and steady approach in all such matters than it is to rush any of it and potentially be in a situation where the Church and the actions it takes become part of the problem rather than contributing to the resolution of the COVID-19 problems.

In any case, I fully believe that the decisions made at every level in the Church are inspired by the Lord. We have particularly seen the inspired leadership of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve in the measured approach taken to weigh the issues at hand and to respond accordingly. It is wonderful to see that unfolding the way it has. And in between the updates that the Church continues to provide in that respect, I do continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to pass along word of those to you all as I become aware of such things.

With the groundbreaking for the Salta Argentina Temple set to occur at 6:30 PM local time, that is now just 15 minute away from now, so you can count on my covering that here once such coverage is available. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

UPDATED: Report on How My Predictions for the November 2020 Ensign Table of Contents Turned Out

Hello again, everyone! Between the apostolic birthdays coming up later this month, and the exact dates being confirmed for 2 of the 8 temple groundbreakings within just the last 48 hours or less, I wanted to get ahead of the rush on everything else I'll need to cover. Although the PDF version of the Novembmer 2020 Ensign is not yet available for online viewing or downloading, I received my physical copy of the magazine in the mail today.

Due to those upcoming projects that will come down the pike in the next couple of weeks, I wanted to provide a comparative look at how my projected table of contents for this issue compared with the actual layout. As has been the case for previous General Conference editions of the Ensign, any differences between what I had predicted and what the magazine actually shows is in parentheses.

The one other note I have on this document (which largely speaks for itself aside from that) is that this will, of course, consittute my final analysis of General Conference editions of the Ensign. That's true because, as of January 2021, The Liahona will be the standard monthly magazine for adults, and the next analysis of a General Conference magazine will be the first General Conference edition of the Liahona after those changes go into effect.

Aside from these notes, the information largely speaks for itself. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Specific Date Announced for the Groundbreaking of the Salta Argentina Temple

Hello again, everyone! Within the last hour or so, new information from the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site has provided more specific information about the timing for the Salta Argentina Temple groundbreaking.  According to that site's page for the Satla Argentina Temple, the groundbreaking for that temple will occur on Wednesday November 4 (two days from now) at 6:30 PM local time. That coverts to Wednesday November 4 @ 2:30 PM here in Utah.

A couple of other thoughts about this: I had thought (and suggested) that the groundbreaking for this temple could have its' groundbreaking occur on the same date as the groundbreakings for the Mendoza Argentina and Antofagasta Chile Temples. But unless there is confirmation on those two occurring on this date, either or both may occur on another day (or two separate days) later this month.

And this means that the groundbreaking for this temple will occur ten days before the also recently-confirmed groundbreaking for the Coban Guatemala Temple. And in 48 case, we now have confirmation of the exact dates for the groundbreakings of 2 of the 8 temples scheduled to have that occur this month. I think we may see at least one more temple have a groundbreaking prior to the mid-point in November, but I'm not as certain on that.

Either way, it's been a crazy 48-72 hours in terms of temple construction developments, and I can only imagine what's ahead in the coming days. I will be sure to monitor it all and will try to bring word of those updates to you all as I become aware of such things. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 

Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Announces Changes in Area Leadership Assignments; Other Assignment Changes for General Authorities at Church Headquarters

Hello again, everyone! Some additional breaking news was just shared that is unrelated to temples or any other recent announcements. As reported by the Church News, some changes have been made in area leadership assignments, with the assignments of other General Authority Seventies also changed in the announcement as follows:

First, the Church News has confirmed all area leadership changes previously shared by ScottS in his comment on that subject in the threads of a previous post, so we now have another official Church source stating that, with Bishop L. Todd Budge's new assignment in the Presiding Bishopric, Elder James R. Rasband replaces Bishop Budge as First Counselor in the Asia North Area Presidency, while Elder John A. McCune in turn succeeds Elder James R. Rasband as Second Counselor in that Area Presidency.

And since Elder McCune has been serving as Second Counselor in the North America Northeast Area, he has also been replaced in that assignnment as previously detailed by ScottS in his aforementioned comment, with Elder Kelly R. Johnson now filling that role. Elder Johnson had previously been serving as an area assistant for that area, so it was a fairly logical shift.

But for the first time of which I'm aware, the First Presidency also provided information today about additional assignments that have been given to other General Authority Seventies. Announced today was the assignment of Elder William K. Jackson as an Asssistant Exeuctive Director of the Church's Missionary Department.

I had previously mentioned that the Church had confirmed that Elder Brent H. Nielson, the newest member of the Presidency of the Seventy, had been succeeded as Executive Director of the Church's Missionary Department by Elder Marcus B. Nash, so it's not altogether surprsing that additional assistants have been called for that department, given how the current COVID-19 pandemic is impacting missionary work.

Meanwhile, in addition to their other assignments, Elder Adrian Ochoa will serve as serve as a Priesthood Advisor for Welfare and Self-Reliance Services and as a member of the JustServe Steering Committee, with Elder Lynn G. Robbins now serving as as a member of the Welfare and Self-Reliance Executive Committee. In light of these announcements, I hope that is an indication that the Church will be trying to be more transparent about the assignments in which each of its' leaders are serving.

I continue to monitor all such news and temple updates and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of them. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Specific Date Announced for the Groundbreaking of the Coban Guatemala Temple

Hello again, everyone! Less than a few hours after the confirmation of the groundbreaking for the Taylorsville Utah Temple, I have another breaking temple development to report. The exact date been announced for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Coban Guatemala Temple. 

Previously announced to just occur sometime next month, today, the announcement noted that that groundbreaking will take place two weeks from today, on Saturday October 14. That groundbreaking follows that of the San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple, which was held on Saturday September 5. 

Hopefully between now and then, full-scale construction will be able to begin on the San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple, or there will be two Central American temples in the "Full-scale construction pending" status. Insofar as I am able to ascertain, none of the other 7 temples for which a groundbreaking has been set to occur in November have had an exact date set. 

But if I am correct that Starudays may be utilized for those for the most part, and that the groundbreakings for the Salta and Mendoza Argentina and Antofagasta Chile Temples will all take place on the same day under the direction of each of the three members of the South America South Area presidency, then that leaves any of the 3 other Saturdays, including November 14, on which one or more temples could also have a groundbreaking.

For that reason, I will be interested to see how the scheduling  arrangements for those are handled. I continue to monitor those developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such news. 

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Halloween Groudbreaking Held for the Taylorsville Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! Having published a brief post on the Taylorsville Utah Temple groundbreaking, which was held today, I am now providing more expansive coverage by recreating as much as I can of the original post content I tried unsuccessfully to share earlier. As I mentioned, a report from KSL published roughly three hours ago confirmed that Elder Gong had presided over that event at some point this morning. 

The Church had assigned Elder Gong to do that in view of his wife's connections to the Taylorsville area in which the temple will be built. The interesting thing is that, although KSL is a subsidiary of a parent company connected to the Church, there has been no official confirmation through either the Church News or Newsroom of this same inforlmation, at least not at the time this post was published. 

But there may be a good reason for that. The KSL article notes that: "[t]he grounds will remain open Saturday for anyone in the Taylorsville area to come ceremoniously break ground for the temple with a few turns of a shovel." Directly after that sentence, Elder Gong is quoted in the article as saying, ""Anyone who wants to come and be part — we hope they will all come and be part — we feel like this is a special day for them."

So the Taylorsville Utah Temple groundbreaking thus has two firsts for the Church: today marked the first Halloween day in the United States on which a temple of the Church had a groundbreaking, and I also believe this is the first time ever (or at least the first time in a long time) that the Church has left a dedicated temple site open for the day for anyone who may be interested in so doing to participate in the ceremonial groundbreaking for that temple.not

Having said that, a few other tidbits from me may be helpful for contextual purposes. The Church announced this temple's groundbreaking (and Elder Gong's assignment to preside at that  event) roughly 2.5 months ago.  Between now and then, Elder and Sister Gong were diagnosed with and have receovered from COVID-19. If the tradition relative to temples in the United States continued with today's groundbreaking, Elder Gong may have offered a general anticipated completion window for this temple, along with noting how soon full-scale efforts are anticipated to get underway. 

But I'd be remiss here if I didn't also note that that optimism about how quickly construction efforts can begin (usually within a window of the week following the groundbreaking cremony) for temples in the United States has apparently been overstated. We have seen delays of varying lengths for the commencement of construction on the Richmond Virginia, Layton Utah, Feather River California, Orem Utah, and Moses Lake Washington Temples.

I will even go a step further and note that the groundbreaking for the Moses Lake Washington Temple took place 3 weeks ago today, and nothing has been done in relation to that temple within that time. Of course, that temple could be considered an exception anyways, since the city officials granted  approval for that temple as long as the Church sees to it that the land is platted within a year of when cconstruction commences.. If the Church is working on platting that site before beginning to build on it, that could explain the delays in that case.

So what I'm trying to convey here is that, whether or not Elder Gong mentioned a general time-frame for full-scale construction to begin on the Taylorsville Utah Temple, or gave any indication of when the Church anticipated completing it, the completion estimate may or may not need to be shifted forward or back. Until more inforrmation is known, given that the temple is anticipated to be just  under 500 square feet bigger than the Orem Utah Temple, I am applying mid-to-late 2023 as an initial general estimate for that temple's completion.

But as with all other estimates I have provided, those are subject to confirmation or denial through any official Church announcement or through any new information provided to me by the sources I use for temple construction updates. Either way,, I continue to monitor all such developments, in addition to any and all Church news updates, and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all here as I become aware of any such updates.

I should also note that I hope to be able to publish updates of information in my temple files at some point between now and November when the bulk of temple groundbreakings held in that maonth have taken place. I will also be setting scheduled posts to publish here in honor of the two apostles celebrating their birthdays in November (with Elder Uchtdorf turning 80 on November 6, and Elder Renlund observing his 68th birthday exactly one week later).

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

October 2020 General Conference Predictions Results

Hello again, everyone! With almost 3 full weeks having passed since the October 2020 General Conference took place, I am pleased to now provide the resultp s of my predictions for it. First, I felt that it might be helpful for many of you if I provided more specific information and examples on what I score, how it is scored, and how that leads to the overall point total and accuracy percentage for them. That new section sets the backdrop for the results of the predicted speaking order, those of the projected changes in general Church leadership and a look at how my list of prospective temple lcations compared to the locations in which a temple was officially announced.

The information largely speaks for itself, but if any of you have questions about any of that, I'd welcome the chance to address them. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

UPDATED: Observations About Temple Groundbreakings in 2020

Hello again, everyone! While I continue to get the results of my October 2020 General Conference predictions ready to present here, and am also making updates as I can to the temple documents I want to share here as well, something else has come up that warranted a new post.  Aside from the Church News updates I provided in the threads of my previous post, one other article was published on the subject of the 21 temple groundbreakings that the Church has scheduled to take place this year. 

The article in question sheds some light on why 18 temple groundbreakings were originally planned, how that number increased to 21, and why President Nelson referenced only 20 in his remarks opening the October 2020 General Conference. It appears that 21 are indeed scheduled to occur, but that the logistics related to the arrangements of 1 of those may result in that groundbreaking being pushed back on the schedule. 

Although the article did not specify which temple might be delayed, I had a few thoughts in that respect.  When the Deseret News published an article on the 2020 groundbreakings, the Mendoza Argentina Temple had not been on that list. So it’s possible that, logistically, there are or may be issues with that temple. We also know that the Salta Argentina Temple’s groundbreaking has been pushed back twice, so any additional delay relative to that temple might push it back into next year. 

Similarly, we know that there are some political, environmental, or systemic issues going on in Zimbabwe’s capital city, which might delay that one. And it appears that Bengaluru India is somewhat of a hot spot for COVID-19 at the moment, so that temple could have its groundbreaking pushed back. While I don’t know if any of these thoughts are correct in defining which temple might not have a groundbreaking, I am personally hoping that all goes well and that the full 21 will be able to occur. 

I’ve previously mentioned a personal theory I have: Since each of the three members of the South America South Area will preside at the groundbreakings for the Salta and Mendoza Argentina and Antofagasta Chile Temples, it seems possible that the three temples could all have groundbreakings on the same day. 

As I’ve also mentioned, with no exact dates specified for any of the remaining 12 temples in the queue for this year, it may be hard to know when each might occur.  That being said, with only a handful of exceptions, most of the temple groundbreakings that have occurred since the beginning of 2017 have taken place on a Saturday. With that in mind, I am fairly certain that Elder Gong will break ground for the Taylorsville Utah Temple this Saturday, October 24. 

I will be interested to see what happens next month with temple groundbreakings. 8 of the remaining 12 groundbreakings are set to take place in November, and there are 4 Saturdays in that month. As a result, even if the Salta, Mendoza, and Antofagasta temples have their groundbreakings on the same day, that still leaves 5 that would need to take place over the other 3 weeks in that month. And for those parts of the world that observe Thanksgiving Day on the final Thursday of this month, that holiday may impact the timing on those groundbreakings as well. 

Similarly, for December, where 3 groundbreakings have been scheduled, the final 2-2.5 weeks of the year focus on Christmas and New Years’ celebrations through most of the world. Even with COVID-19 impacting the customary large-scale public celebrations, the Church likely will not want to detract from the focus particularly on Christmas. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how the Church handles the remaining 12 groundbreakings. I will keep my eyes open for any such updates, in addition to all Church news and other temple construction developments, and remain committed to passing word of those along to you all as I become aware of that information. 

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.